Saturday Nights Alright For Fighting……

I am writing this for the second time. I was almost finished and was in the process of adding a pic when……it all crashed! And the automatic save did not automatically save! So I have returned from having a nice cup of tea and a sit down!

Last nights foray into the Big City Centre started off slowly but built up to a crescendo by 0400hrs. I had checked the Foxtrot Oscar RRV for all the equipment it should carry. Defib/monitor, drugs bag, trauma bag, resus O2 bag, entonox etc. I then picked up the Police officer from the main Police station in the city. “K” was to be my crewmate for the shift from 2000hrs. till 0400hrs. It was “K”s first full shift on the Foxtrot Oscar vehicle. It is becoming more and more popular with the Police and the waiting list to go on it is growing week by week.

Our first job was to a man lying in the street. On arrival scene we were met by a Police Inspector and a PC who had come across this man whilst on foot patrol. It was quite obvious that he was NFA (no fixed abode) and was sleeping rough. He had propped himself up against an air vent which was pushing out warm air from the residential building down this side street. The Inspector had contacted Police comms to ask for our attendance as he was not sure if this man was injured. This is the beauty of working the Foxtrot Oscar system, the Police can ask for us direct and the Ambulance comms can also ask for us where a Police presence is required.

I asked the gent on the floor if he was okay? He said that he had bought some new boots and they had given him blisters…and he wanted to go to A/E! Knowing full well that some people living on the street have contracted “trench foot” due to the practice of wrapping their feet in plastic bags, I asked him to remove his footwear and socks…..hindsight is a wonderful thing! Yep…sure enough, nasty looking blisters but not nasty enough to warrant a trip to A/E. The main problem for us now was that we were now being gassed by the noxious fumes emanating from his ends of his legs! His feet were black with grime and the smell of his cheese encrusted, sweat soaked, swamp gas, putrid skin was made worse by the warm air wafting from the air vent over him!!! Luckily the Inspector found him a place in a Hostel and he was taken there.

Another job was to a “pseudo-fitter” in a pub. She was young girl who pretends to fit and kicks off at everybody within hitting distance. Apparently she suffers from ADHD ( what used to be called being a nuisance or naughty). She was also well known to the Police as “K” recognised her straight away. Mum turned up and eventually calmed her down and took her home. Police comms were still reading out her ASBO conditions 10 minutes later as we headed back into the City Centre!

Most of the rest of the shifts jobs were assault related (due to drink obviously). One was to a young lad with a split nose and lip and redesigned shirt. He had smacked a bouncer (sorry door supervisor operative) and was then surprised to get smacked back…but harder! Other assaults involved broken noses of various shapes and sizes and bumps, bruises, cuts, grazes, nicks and a fair bit of spillage of “claret”. Most fights were due to misunderstandings….ie, misunderstanding that the lads you have just gobbed off to are much more sober than you and therefore can land better punches than you!

All in all, we attended 15 incidents and managed to deal with 13 without having to tie up an ambulance. This also works for the police as they can get someone quickly on scene to check out an injured person before arresting them rather than having to send an officer with them to the hospital. There are plans for the scheme to be expanded.

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4 Responses to Saturday Nights Alright For Fighting……

The smelly toxic feet are all too common, especially when taking them off in custody. I have been slapped around the face too many times by the smell of rotten feet.
We see the same things at the weekend don’t we!
I will add your blog to my side bar and will try to read as often as possible.

Thank you so much for this posting as it answers my question from last night re: the combined response vehicle. Sadlyit has blown my two theories out of the window :-)) However, this really does seem to be an ideal combo especially on weekend nights as you have demonstrated from the call load you both dealt with.

I can see why the cops would be really keen to sign up to this. I can remember an ambulance strike where they made the police do the calls and some of the cops were emerging from the back of the transit vans in a worse state of panic than the pts. It wasnt their fault they didnt know how to care for really sick pts or to sit the COAD’s upright etc as this was not something they had been taught or expected to need to know. I am sure both sides are picking up skills and knowledge from each other which may just come in very handy one day tho’ I am not sure they will let you carry quick cuffs or CS, no matter how useful they might come in!